stupid different standard of writing dates!

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So i received this check from Iowa State University (my school), it dates 7/9/2007. See here's the problem, 7/9/2007 in u.s. means July 9th 2007, but in Malaysia it means 7th September 2007. So i cannot cash it until September. The bank cashier want doesn't take this U.S. date as July 9th. This time American different standard has screw me up real good.

 

That's why I always write out the month on checks I write, and I wish that companies would too. When the month is written out, different date formats aren't as much of a problem.

[ July 30, 2007, 08:14: Message edited by: Stefanina ]

 

Look! You're already speaking like a red neck American.

Face it people...the American standard is the way to go. The SI/Metric system sucks, any date format besides MM/DD/YYYY sucks, driving on the left side of the road sucks, and anything else you wacky foreigners do sucks too!

/me locks himself in a bomb shelter.

(I'm just kidding by the way...)

 

DD/MM/YYYY here in Aus. Bet you wish you went to school here now right

 

You either go smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest, but you can't scramble it up, put it in a random order and think it makes sense

 

So - does anyone know why America introduced differences like this? AFAIK, no other country switches the day and month like that - only America.

Same goes for American butchering of the English language ('color' is supposed to have a 'u' in it, dammit) - is there any good reason why America has this?

 

Because most people across the globe say "July 9th, 2007". I've only heard 3 people say "9th of July, 2007" and they were very English.

Because very few people in the 16th century were literate, meaning they spelled words as they sounded. You don't *say* the 'u' in 'color'; be glad it's not 'culer'.

 

True, but wouldn't that mean that non-Americans would tend to use the more formal '<day> of <month>, <year>' phrase in speech?

So I guess we need a poll to find out?

(I'm thinking it's just arbitrary how the 'MuDdY' or "DuMmY' dating systems came about and became adopted by respective governments as 'official' formats.)

Or, heaven forbid, spell other words like 'fotograf', or 'farmacy'. (Isaac Asimov was rather vociferous about what he saw as a "foolish" redundancy of the two letters 'ph' that English inherited from the Greek language.)

Which leads me to think of:

(I think it's a George Carlin 'short take' but I'm not certain...)

 

America colors itself as something of a rebel, seeing as that's how we became a country in the first place. It's why we drink coffee instead of tea, it's why we spell things differently, it's why we *do* things differently. Add to that paranoia that other countries are trying to take us down, and we're not about to start doing things their way. Because we're special, and we're the best!

Also, I think the only true standard for dates is YYYY/MM/DD. Biggest first; it makes for easier coding.

 

DD/MM/YYYY is the only correct way to write a date.

And, BTA, it's 'cheque'.

(colonials...)

 

Precisely.

I can see some logic for how Americans ended up with different spellings for words (annpying though it is) but scrambling up the dates makes no sense at all.

 

Je n'ai pas su que vous avez parlé français, Barmy.

 

Je ne savais pas que vous parliez français by the way

 

Gah, I hate putting dates in numbers too, so I always write the month name out, in one short form or another. Sept 7, 2007. I know that this form isn't as easy to process with a computer though.

 

number one, the cashier was rather reluctant to do that. Besides, asking them to do so would give them good excuse to charge this and that. i can wait.

number two, yeah BTA, i thought this is a good story to fuel some American mocking. The solution is not the subject here, the problem is.

number three, i emailed the school telling them this problem. i know it's like putting out a dried alfalfa barn with a cup of water, but at least i gave them a suggestion.

number four, like many others here, i use "three alphabet month indication system". This kind of unnecessary confusion can be avoided. The world is chaotic enough.

 

I agree with kuemper 100% on this matter. We write our dates the way we say them.

Guy #1: "What's your birthday?"
Guy #2: "September fourth, nineteen eighty one."

The only person who would respond, "Fourth of September, nineteen eighty one." is a overly prude Brit with a stick up his/her backside. They might as well add “jeeves” or “guv’na” to the end of that sentence.

We don't queue up for the lift....we wait in *line* for the * elevator *. We don't live in flats, we live in *apartments*...well, those of us who can't afford a house do.
Smoking a fag to us means either killing a homosexual, or seriously beating them in some contest. If you're actually smoking a tobacco product, then it's called smoking a cigarette.

Anyway...my point is, our version of the English language actually makes sense.